Eric Sepanek
SBC Founder
Eric Sepanek is the founder of Scottsdale Bullion & Coin, established in 2011. With extensive experience in the precious metals industry, he is dedicated to educating Americans on the wealth preservation power of gold and silver.
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For decades, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was the default home for much of the world’s official gold. That is changing. Over the past decade, a growing list of countries, including the Netherlands, France, Germany, Poland, and India, have moved gold out of foreign vaults and either brought it home or shifted it to more easily tradable locations.
Each move tends to make headlines on its own. Taken together, they point to something bigger: central banks are rethinking not just how much gold they own, but where it sits and how quickly they can use it in a crisis.
What Is Gold Repatriation?
Gold repatriation is when a country moves its gold reserves from a foreign vault back to its own territory. Many nations stored bullion abroad after World War II, largely in New York, London, and Paris, because those cities were the centers of global finance and gold trading. Holding gold there made it easy to settle transactions, post collateral, or sell quickly.
Today, more central banks are asking a different question: if a crisis hits, can we actually get to our gold? That concern is driving a wave of relocations that shows little sign of slowing.
A Decade of Countries Moving Their Gold
Repatriation is not a one-off event. It has unfolded in waves, with several countries returning to the idea more than once.
| Country | Year(s) | What Happened |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | 2013–2017 | Brought 674 tonnes home from New York and Paris to Frankfurt |
| Netherlands | 2014 | Moved 122.5 tonnes from New York to Amsterdam |
| Turkey | 2017–2018 | Pulled about 220 tonnes from U.S. custody |
| Poland | 2019 | Returned 100 tonnes from the Bank of England to Warsaw |
| India | 2024–2025 | Brought more than 100 tonnes home from the U.K., with further transfers since |
| France | 2025–2026 | Sold its remaining 129 tonnes held in New York, leaving all of its gold in Paris |
| Netherlands | 2026 | Moved about 86 tonnes out of New York and Ottawa, largely to London |
The Netherlands: A Two-Stage Strategy
The Netherlands offers one of the clearest examples of a long-term plan. In 2014, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) transferred 122.5 tonnes of physical gold from New York to Amsterdam. That raised the share of domestically held Dutch gold from 11% to 31% and cut the U.S. share from 51% to 31%. Officials said the goal was a “positive confidence effect” among the Dutch public.
In 2026, DNB returned to the idea. Between March and August, New York’s share of the country’s roughly 612 tonnes fell from 31.3% to 18.5%, while London’s share rose from 18.1% to 32.1%. About 27 tonnes were physically shipped from North America to DNB’s vault in Zeist. The rest was moved financially by selling gold held in New York and buying equivalent, internationally tradable bars in London. Across both waves, the Netherlands has cut its U.S.-held gold by almost two-thirds.
France: Fully Out of New York
France took the idea further. Starting in July 2025, the Banque de France sold its remaining gold stored in New York and replaced it with modern bars held at home. When the process wrapped up in January 2026, all of France’s gold was held domestically. The official reason was to upgrade older bars to current standards for better tradability and liquidity.
Germany and Italy: Growing Pressure at Home
Germany completed a major repatriation in 2017 but still keeps roughly a third of its gold in New York. Italy, which holds one of the world’s largest gold reserves, also stores a large share at the New York Fed. In both countries, politicians, economists, and taxpayer groups have pushed for more of that gold to come home. Neither has announced a new transfer, but the debate keeps resurfacing whenever geopolitical tension rises.
Emerging Markets: Buying More and Storing It Closer
Poland and India show a related trend. Both have been heavy buyers of gold in recent years, and both have chosen to keep more of it at home. Other central banks are joining in as well: South Korea resumed gold buying after a 13-year pause. For many emerging-market central banks, repatriation goes hand in hand with a broader push to hold more gold and less reliance on the U.S. dollar.
Why Countries Are Moving Their Gold
The details differ by country, but the reasons central banks give tend to fall into a few familiar categories.
Faster Access During a Crisis
Emergency preparedness is a recurring theme. When the Netherlands announced its 2026 move, DNB said a more balanced distribution would make its gold “more readily available for use in a crisis situation.” Gold that sits on another continent may be secure, but it is harder to use quickly if markets seize up or borders close.
Rising Geopolitical Risk
The freezing of Russia’s foreign reserves in 2022 was a wake-up call for many central banks. It showed that assets held abroad can become inaccessible for political reasons. Spreading reserves across several locations, or keeping them at home, reduces exposure to any single country’s decisions.
Tradability and Bar Quality
Not every move is about bringing gold home. Both France and the Netherlands cited liquidity and tradability. London is the world’s largest bullion market, and gold held there in standard London Good Delivery bars can be sold or used as collateral more easily than older bars held elsewhere.
Gold as an “Anchor of Trust”
Central banks increasingly describe gold as the ultimate reserve asset because it carries no counterparty risk. DNB called gold an “anchor of trust” and said it is “ideally suited to hedge extreme systemic risks.” That view lines up with a broader shift as the dollar’s dominance of global reserves gradually declines and central banks continue buying gold at a historic pace.
What the Data Says About the Trend
The individual headlines are backed up by survey data. The World Gold Council’s 2026 central bank survey found that roughly one in ten central banks had increased domestic gold storage or diversified their overseas storage locations over the prior year, with a similar share planning to do so going forward.
Just as telling, 20% of respondents declined to say where their gold is stored, up from 8% the year before. Central banks are not only moving their gold; they are becoming more guarded about where it is. With a large share of central bank gold reserves still held abroad, there is plenty of room for this trend to continue.
What This Means for Individual Investors
When the institutions that manage national wealth decide they want their gold closer and easier to access, it is worth paying attention. Their reasoning, including counterparty risk, crisis access, and a preference for physical metal over paper promises, applies to individual investors too. In fact, wealthy investors are demanding more control over their gold for many of the same reasons.
That is one reason more investors are choosing to own physical bullion outright rather than holding gold only through paper products. It is also why private vault demand has surged as wealthy investors look for secure storage they control. As concerns about currency debasement and geopolitical risk continue, central banks’ actions offer a useful signal about how the world’s most cautious money is positioning.